The Other Weasleys And Potters

Chapter 4 || Jeffrey

Jeffrey loved Hogwarts. He loved the flying lessons and potions class. Many students and professors already knew him, or at least his family, on account of Bill being Head Boy and Charlie being the Gryffindor quidditch captain. But Jeffrey was determined to not be known as just another Weasley.

The next year, he tried out for the quidditch team. He was shocked when he read the results paper and saw his name. Jeffrey Weasley- Chaser. Charlie went over to Jeffrey. "Hey, Jeff, I just wanted you to know that you really are good. I had to ask the opinions of the professors to be allowed to let you in since we're related. They all thought you were brilliant." Jeffrey grinned. To hear any sort of compliment from one of his brothers was as rare as pocket money.

Jeffrey worked hard at both the quidditch field and the classroom, but he was definitely taking after Charlie's quidditch skills rather than Bill's academic skills. He became the lead chaser in third year, and was captain by fourth year, when Charlie left. He loved his fourth year. That was the only year when he was the only Weasley at Hogwarts. Looking back, he realized that he was more confident when he was not in the shadow of his brothers, but that did not stop the Gryffindor's utter defeat by Slytherin.

In fifth year, Percy came. Jeffrey showed him around Hogwarts and took him to quidditch practices. Jeffrey knew that Percy hated quidditch and was a total klutz at it, but he was also shy and would have just spent the day reading, and Percy needed some friends. Human friends, not fictional friends.

One day after practice, Jeffrey looked over to see Percy talking with a sandy-haired boy that Jeffrey was pretty sure was another Gryffindor first year. Just to make sure, he went over to the stands where Percy was.

"Hey, Perce."

"Hey, Jeffrey."

The boy next to Percy gasped. "You must be Percy's brother. You were amazing out there. I came to watch today, cause I want to try out for the quidditch team next year, and I came to see how you guys practiced."

"Um, yeah." Jeffrey said hesitantly.

"Oh, my name's Wood. Oliver Wood."

"Um, nice to meet you. I'm going to go change, why don't you two head back up for supper."

As the boys walked away, Percy seemed to be grumpy. Jeffrey instantly felt a twinge of guilt. He remembered what it was like trying to make friends when everyone was excited about his amazing older brothers.

A week later, it seemed that everything was now okay between Percy and Oliver, as they were always together. That summer, Oliver actually came to visit the Weasleys. He appeared as obsessed with quidditch as before, so of course there were millions of quidditch matches between the boys that summer. When they went back to school and it was time for tryouts, Jeffrey could tell that Oliver was actually pretty good, and put him on the team.

Jeffrey's O.W.Ls had been okay that year, but Mum wasn't happy with them, so Jeffrey was told to work hard in school for his N.E.W.Ts next year. When he had complained about it at home, saying the quidditch team needed complete devotion, with both Oliver and Charlie nodding fervently, Bill had interjected, saying,"Honestly, Jeff, they're not that hard. Don't complain so much."

Percy had said helpfully," I could take them for you if you want."

Everyone had burst into laughter. "Could you? We lost our winning streak two years ago and we need it back."

But nothing had worked and now Jeffrey was often up all night working on homework or studying while going over quidditch strategies in his head.

The next summer, 17 year old Jeffrey had taken Ginny over to the Lovegoods to play one day, even though she had protested saying she was eight years old and could walk herself over perfectly fine. But Mum hadn't allowed it, so here Jeffrey was knocking on the queer door of this queer house. Now, he knew the Lovegoods. The two families were good family friends, especially since Ginny and Luna were born. But Jeffrey had somehow never managed to go to their house. He was definitely not prepared for what met him inside. Mrs. Lovegood met them at the door. She was wearing a long white coat and goggles, and she looked dazed. "Oh, Ginny dear! Come inside, Luna's up in her room. Luna! Ginny's here!"

Mrs. Lovegood smiled at Jeffrey. "Now, you're Jeffrey, right?" Jeffrey nodded. "Well, come inside!" Jeffrey hesitantly went inside. "I can show you my lab. I've been working on something new, but it's not going very well right now."

Jeffrey followed her through the house into a room that was unlike any other. Machines were whizzing and whirring against every wall, and the rest of the room was taken up by a huge table cluttered with papers and tubes and anything and everything sciency. "Wow," he breathed.

"This is where I'm doing all of my experiments. Right now I'm working on something every muggleborn dreams of- counter-cursing the magic that makes muggle objects go haywire. It's rather dangerous, and I've only just started. I gave myself a due date of a year from now. It seems long, I know, but it's actually rather realistic. Would you like to watch?" Mrs. Lovegood asked.

"Um, sure," Jeffrey said, not wanting to seem impolite.

But as he watched her, he grew fascinated with her experiment. When it was time to go, he asked if he could come back again. Delighted that someone was taking an interest in her little mystery, Pandora responded with an "Of course!"

And Jeffrey did come back during the summer, every day. After he graduated from Hogwarts with another failed quidditch season and only a couple of N.E.W.Ts, he was looking for an escape from all the ways he had disappointed himself and found it in that lab. Mrs. Lovegood offered him a job working with her, but she specified that they would unfortunately only get paid once they submitted it to the Scientific Department of the Ministry of Magic. Jeffrey still took the job and would spend day and night puzzling over their little mystery. He would ask Arthur and Pandora about muggle things to help him understand more about muggles and their technology, which could help them in their experiment.

After Percy and the twins left for Hogwarts, he could work even harder, since Ginny and Ron were easy for Mum to handle. He loved his new job and put his life and soul into it; literally.

(A/N This is my longest part ever-more than 1000 words! Please comment and vote. Bye!)